RIP Marco Simoncelli

Sad day in motorcycle history.

Marco Simoncelli

20 January 1987 – 23 October 2011

First time at Palomar Mt.

Too tired to write a long detailed post on my day at Palomar Mt. but all I can say is this is heaven on earth. The conditions of the road were a tad dusty but the skies were clear and the air crisp. To sum it up the spot consisted of turn after turn of orgasmic, knee dragging, chicken strip wearing goodness. I found the course physically demanding and being my first time out I'll admit I was a bit under confident. Its been about a month and a half since I've done any major road racing resulting in my knees shaking like a cold prostitute after just one pass up. Definitely time to bring the skills up. Cheers.

GP Shift Modification

So I'm going to reverse my shift pattern like the motoGP race bikes.

Standard pattern: 1st gear up Neutral Up 2nd Up 3rd and so forth.
GP pattern: 1st gear down Neutral Down 2nd Down 3rd...you get it.

 This will make a more pronounced 1st  to 2nd gear shift and easier shifting while in lean since Ill be able to keep the ball of my foot on the peg. Best of all its free and only takes a dremel! Heres pretty much how it will go down this saturday.

Photo courtesy of Yamaha Motor Co.

Carburetor Mechanics 101 Part 1

Oh come on what the f**k...

Sweet Jesus! I manned up and woke up this morning with full confidence that I would install the jet kit I purchased off ebay about a week ago. I must admit I was worried since I've never taken apart a carb in my life but it struck me the night before that I'm a genius and need not to worry.

Three biers later, Mr. T and I began going through the disassembly of the motorcycle, removing the jets, shimming them,  swapping larger main and pilot jets, etc etc. Life was good until it came to firing her up. Basically it purr'd nicely for a good 5 seconds then shut off. Panic set in and I proceeded to try out different configurations of choke and idle screw adjustments with no luck. I stepped back for a moment to collect my thoughts on how I would figure out this dilemma. I decided that the main jet I used was much too rich for the bike so I switched the 170 jets for 160s which would hopefully lean out the Air Fuel ratio a bit. This did nothing to the bike except cause the bike to rev up to 8000rpms and shoot a 4 foot explosive fire blast out of my exhaust nearly burning Mr.T and his very expensive German sports car. Note to self: Always video tape myself work.

 I decided at that moment its probably best I postpone the project for the night in fear of bodily harm to myself and possibly others. I retreat to my bed and ponder what exactly went wrong. Two ideas pop into my head.

1. Needle position isn't correct. #2 is the way I installed it.

2. Pilot screws need to be screwed in all the way and back out 2.5 turns not vice-versa.

Hopefully I dream of a solution tonight.